2009: Mary Mary’s extraordinary year
It has been a big year for gospel royalty Mary Mary, whose critically acclaimed album, “The Sound,” has just been named Top Gospel Album by Billboard magazine. The gospel duo was also named Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artist, Duo/Group and Top Gospel Artist by the industry guide. Earlier this month, Mary Mary, received a 2009 Grammy® Award nomination for the record-breaking single, “God In Me,” in the Best Gospel Song category. The duo took home a 2009 Grammy® Award earlier this year (its second overall) for the hit single, “Get Up,” in the Best Gospel Performance category and a 2009 American Music Award last month for Favorite Artist, Contemporary Inspirational. (Continue Reading…)

NYC jobless map reveals Blacks worst hit by recession
The overall unemployment rate in NYC was 10.1 percent in the third quarter of 2009, but the jobless numbers vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood, according to a distressing, if unsurprising, new study by the Fiscal Policy Institute, a liberal research group. For example, overall unemployment was 5.1% on Manhattan’s Upper East and West Sides, compared to 15.7% in Central Bronx and 19.2% in East New York. FPI also broke down the data by race, finding that blacks rank #1 in the jobless category in almost every part of NYC (except areas of Staten Island and Whitestone, Queens, where info on blacks was “not applicable.”) Both The Wall Street Journal and City Room have great interactive maps of the damage; by scrolling over City Room’s map, you can see how individual racial and ethnic groups fared in different parts of town. (Continue Reading…)

Poll: Obama popular among African-Americans, but ‘thrill is gone’
African-Americans are extremely supportive of President Obama, but their enthusiasm appears to have dramatically dropped from earlier this year, according to a new national poll. The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey, released Tuesday, also indicates that Obama’s presidency appears to have made blacks more optimistic about race relations, but less than one in five believe the new president has ushered in a new era of race relations in the country. (Continue Reading…)

1. An indication or warning of a future event; an omen.
2. A feeling or intuition of what the future holds.
3. Prophetic significance.
4. [Archaic] A prediction; a prognostication.
transitive verb:
1. To indicate or warn of beforehand; to foreshadow.
2. To have a presentiment of.
3. To predict; to foretell.
intransitive verb:
1. To make or utter a prediction.

Although the enlightenment and liberation which had been expected to come after the war had not come with victory, a presage of freedom was in the air throughout these post-war years, and it was their only historical meaning.
— Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago

Always having to go to other people to find jobs. We need to be in control of our own socioeconomic situation.

Also, as it stands, I think sometimes people do not realise that ultimately it is someone else who gives you a job. People will call you ‘lazy’, a ‘deadbeat’ or whatever eventhough you’re out there 24/7 searching and applying for jobs but ultimately it is someone else who gives it to you. Tthose who control the jobs aren’t necessarily looking out for your best interests or the people who you represent. We, especially black males, will continue to suffer unless we drop the illusion of progress through integration and the pursuit of the American Dream and turn the focus on empowering and strengthening ourselves because honestly only we can make things better for ourselves. We need to empower ourselves as a whole, not just women, not just men, not just the young, not just the old but all of us as one.